I see you poor souls are still in the grip of an nasty looking beatle infestation, so I’m just going to drop this here and go about my biz. Blame Moose.
Music. It’s great, isn’t it? All those sounds and lyrics and feelings. But you know what I really like? That new shit. That inconsequential, disposable, all been done before and better, kids don’t know what they’re doing shit.
So, I’m over here in 2017 (visitors always welcome), and – I gotta say – there’s some ace stuff going on. I think this might prove to be a really, really good year. Yes, that Lorde tune is an authentic banger. Yes, the xx record sounds even better in the sunshine than it did in the cold. Yes, muthafreakin Japandroidsfuckyeah! Yes, Julie Byrne, Laura Marling, Penguin Cafe and all that other music I play at bed time.
But I want to talk about the last couple of months. Because the last couple of months have given us some absolute gems. Gems which I will now scatter across this blog, pearls before swine, because music is great, and great music should be shared.
Hold tight, here we go…
1. Don’t Kill My Vibe – Sigrid
I gave this a mild hype on the blog a few weeks ago before I wandered off, but it’s now getting a massive push off Apple, so hopefully more people will have heard it.
Quite simply, the biggest pop tune you’ll hear this year. Great drums, great vocals, great handclaps. In and out in three minutes flat.
If you cannot get excited to this you really may as well hand in your cards, lie flat on the ground and give up entirely like Thom Yorke did years ago.
2. Theme from Q – Objekt
Is there a man or woman on this blog who hasn’t stood in a busy bar or club in the last few weeks and seen the ripple of excitement across the crowd as the intro to this record begins to unfurl?
Obviously, it’s incredibly derivative of 60s beat groups (I mean, come on; all those Belated V Chords, the fact they blatantly use quadratone to sculpt the middle eighth – who are they even trying to kid?), but leaving that aside – it’s a platinum-plated, fully paid up, are they dancing on the tables now, look at the face that man is pulling CHOOOOOON.
Also: proof that when the weather turns warm, mans must always reach for the Two Step.
3. Sign of The Times – Harry Styles
Yeah, I know.
I hold no brief for Harry Styles, nor One Direction. In any sane universe, this should be utterly atrocious.
But it isn’t, is it? In fact, it’s bloody marvellous. It has lots of lovely sounds in it (that weird “plane taking off” noise near the start, the weird, curvy sounding guitar note that intros the chorus, the choral swell near the end), he gives good vocal and there’s something undeniably majestic about the whole venture.
If you told me this was a great lost Bolan tune, with Bowie at the controls, I’d probably just about believe you. And that cannot – cannot – be a bad thing, regardless of the berk who happens to sing it. It feels very much like the song Noel Gallagher spent the latter years of Oasis repeatedly trying, and failing, to write.
Video is also pretty good.
4. Biking – Frank Ocean
https://youtu.be/PvOMltbN5M8
A new Frank Ocean track, you say? About a man riding his bike up and down hills? With a yearning sense of nostalgia and “where does the time go” wistfulness? And he’s now rapping a bit like Young Thug?
All the usual Ocean goodness is here. It’s warm, and inviting and full of short, suggestive phrases and evocative imagery. It makes me feel young. And it has a beat!
5. Doin Me – Mikey Mike
I was walking with my moms, and she turned to me and she said: “Bingo, does it matter that this song was featured on a TV ad for cameras”, and I said “NOOOOO”.
Proof, if proof were needed, that this whole malarkey can be very, very simple. Follow no man, follow the god within. They’ll be coming for your heart real soon.
6. Family Don’t Matter – Young Thug
Is there any better feeling in life than opening Spotify to listen to Royal Blood and discovering that Young Thug has, with zero fanfare, dropped a new album entitled “Beautiful Thugger Girls”? No, quite clearly there is not. What a time to be alive.
Hailing from the deep, dark depths of Trap, now officially into the third year of a wild stylistic frolic, Young Thug is – for my money – one of the most interesting musicians working today. This tune, with its lovely acoustic country guitar loop, female co-vocalist and that trade mark impenetrable mumble, has me very excited indeed. It’s perfect for the haze of a warm London evening. It has a properly grand beat drop. It’s the best hip hop record this year where someone shouts “yee-haw”.
He’s brilliant, and he could go absolutely anywhere next.
Apologies for the intrusion. I’ve just had one of those months where you really buzz off music, and this still seems a good place to share the joy. I think we’re having a really good year, and I can’t wait to see what the second half brings. I still don’t have any interest in the Beatles. Excelsior!
X
BL
Is Harry Styles a berk? He seems like a nice enough chap to me. Especially when compared to some of the complete tossers amongst his peers, like Bieber. Good tune too.
Oooooh that’s some good posting action Mr L. Not a solitary tune there I don’t love, some more than others. I’d go to Harry last and Young Thug first but god, those Objekt and Sigrid tunes are fantastic.
Wonderful to have you drop in, duder. 🙂
He is risen!
(hurrr)
Your post has inspired me to listen to some new music.
I have listened to all of those tracks with mixed views.
The Harry Styles is perfect pop rock in the style of late 1990s Robbie Williams and the Mikey Mike track is a great new protest song. Objekt is a great dance tune…I haven’t been to a club for many a year though!
Young Thug washed over me, it was pleasant enough but no more.
I cannot stand the vocal stylings/song structures of the Sigrid and Frank Ocean songs though…they just grate with me. Although the Sigrid song does occasionally let a good melody in.
I don’t get the love for the Harry Styles track at all – and I’m not coming at this from some default anti-boyband position (I love the Liam Payne single, for example). ‘Sign of the Times’ is too slow, too ponderous, too desperate to be taken seriously and at least a minute too long. Your Gallagher comparison made me realise exactly what it reminds me of: a Noel-sung fourth single off a late period Oasis album.
And every time I hear that slide guitar sound at the top of the chorus, I keep expecting a bloody Loony Tunes cartoon to start.
Hard Times by Paramore – that’s my summertime ‘jam’.
Top post, Bings… No idea what you are talking about but I will listen to every one of these tunes tomorrow, I promise.
Don`t forget that NEW Big Big Train album in the shops on Friday, how NEW is that?
Links elsewhere on this place…
…and just in case you don`t go for BBT here`s some more NEW stuff from the last few months that have been delighting Harkonnen Towers;
CHUCK PROPHJET – BOBBY FULLER DIED FOR YOUR SINS
SADIES – NMORTHERN PASSAGES
RHIANNON GIDDENS – FREEDOM HIGHWAY
STEVE HACKETT & DJABE – SUMMER STORMS & ROCKING RIVERS
SON VOLT – NOTES OF BLUE
RYAN ADAMS – PRISONER
HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF – THE NAVIGATOR
ARBOURETUM – SONG OF THE ROSE
DEPECHE MODE – SPIRIT
CRAIG FINN – WE ALL WANT THE SAME THINGS
STEVE HACKETT – THE NIGHT SIREN
JETHRO TULL – THE STRING QUARTETS
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD – FLYING MICROTONAL BANANA
TEDUSHI TRUCKS BAND – LIVE FROM THE FOX OAKLAND
JOHN OTWAY – MONTSERRAT
BIG BIG TRAIN – GRIMSPOUND
BRITISH SEA POWER – LET THE DANCERS INHERIT THE PARTY
RAY DAVIES – AMERICAN
ROBYN HITCHCOCK – ROBYN HITCHCOCK
MARK LANEGAN BAND – GARGOYLE
JOHN MELLENCAMP/CARLENE CARTER – SAD CLOWNS & HILLBILLIES
OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW – 50 YEARS OF BLONDE ON BLONDE
TEMPLES – VOLCANO
SAM OUTLAW – TENDERHEART
PENDRAGON – MASQERADE 20
BNQT – VOLUME 1
SHERYL CROW – BE MYSELF
RODNEY CROWELL – CLOSE TIES
GOOD HARVEST – IN A LIFE AND PLACE LIKE THIS
HAWKWIND – INTO THE WOODS
TOM HICKOX – MONSTERS IN THE DEEP
CHRIS ROBINSON – BETTY`S BLENDS: VOLUME THREE
PROCOL HARUM – NOVUM
PAUL WELLER – A KIND REVOLUTION
TOM RUSSELL – PLAY ONE MORE: THE SONGS OF IAN & SYLVIA
JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE – KIDS IN THE STREET
DAMANEK – ON TRACK
DAN AUERBACH – WAITING ON A SONG
MAGPIE SALUTE – THE MAGPIE SALUTE
TODD RUNDGREN – WHITE NIGHT
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS – PRAYER FOR PEACE
ROGER WATERS – IS THIS THE LIFE WE REALLY WANT?
REAL ESTATE – IN MIND
VALERIE JUNE – THE ORDER OF TIME
WOODS – LOVE IS LOVE
Fuck, how big is your pension, Baron?
Not as big as yours @retropath2.
Those are only the new stuff. Lots of rereleases/remaster/regurgitated stuff also. It’s a fuckin’ disease, maybe you can help ; ))
The more I listen to DAMN. the more I like it. Here’s DNA.:
Arca’s album is astonishing. Any excuse to post a vid, Reverie:
Jlin’s Black Origami is full of creative, sensuous rhythms.
https://youtu.be/-axSp3ezKws
Afterworders often scoff about modern R&B. SZA’s new album, CTRL, is superb.
Great to see you, Bingo. Please visit more often. We need you.
Bingo’s tracks were interesting, but Tigger, yours were all astounding and musically stretching. I left the Kendrick Lamarr till last because I don’t like a lot of hiphop, but it was the best of all of them.
Good innit. And that’s one of the weaker tracks on there.
None of those moved me one centimetre Tiggs. I do like challenging music, I don`t normally like Jazz but I love left-field Jazz. Don`t ask me to name the albums, I can`t name the bloody artists, oh yes, Pharoah Sanders. That guy is phenomenal, I saw him in Manchester a while back, I know sweet FA about playing a sax but guy sure did. SZA, Arca, Kendrick? They should not be named in the same sentence as The Beatles, Dylan, Steve Hackett, The Waterboys, BBT, Chris Robinson. Sometimes I think some people nominate NOISE `musicians(?)` for the sake of wanting to look hip.
But HEY, put those bloody knives away, the above is MY opinion. You have yours also.
I trust you have the MAGNIFICENT ‘Karma’ by Pharoah Sanders, Baron? A regular collaborator with the divine Alice Coltrane, as well.
I certainly do have Karma* Rob and I have a couple of Alice’s rather great albums also.
*I also have Pharoah’s album of the same name.
I thought the point of the thread was to celebrate modern music. Those four tracks are from albums released in 2017 that I think are rather good. We can duke it out about The Beatles on another thread.
Beatles?????
That Jlin track could have been on a King Crimson album in the 1980s. It was great and I will investigate more.
The rest left me cold, but I don’t get hip hop so maybe I am the wrong person to judge.
Still more new music to find…thanks!
Can’t embed videos here at work but Carly Rae Jepsen’s Cut to the Feeling is quite a toe-tapper and no mistake.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s singles are always great.
Great to have you back, Bingo. Sigrid is playing at Roskilde (at lunchtime!) and if I manage to get to Denmark this year, I will definitely be at her gig.
Here’s an atmospheric track from 2017 from Argentina. Juana Molina is never wrong.
Something recent from Brazil? OK then!
Melodic, sensual and brassy: Garotas Suecas.
“Obviously, it’s incredibly derivative of 60s beat groups (I mean, come on; all those Belated V Chords, the fact they blatantly use quadratone to sculpt the middle eighth – who are they even trying to kid?),…” Well yes, I could hear a lot of Hedgehoppers Anonymous in there, although I did spend a long time waiting for the CHOOOON to actually start… 😉
Joshing aside, I thought Sigrid was terrific, though I much preferred the “acoustic” (ie unprocessed) version on Jools to the official version you posted. All the others, not so much I’m afraid, although there’s no reason why the opinion of a Beatle-fancier should bother you.
Thanks- added to my 2017 playlist which I will get round to (soon).
I agree, it’s looking like a good year for music. I really, really need to catch up.
This one from last month’s Coldcut x On U Sound* album has been good company over these last few hot days
*combined age probably 407. I’m not good at this young thing.
Haven’t got around to giving it a listen myself yet, but did you notice that there was a “Lost Tapes” album of previously-unreleased Tack>>Head stuff from 1985-95 released last week?
“What’s My Mission Now? Fight The Devil!”
Great stuff.
I’m now getting myself excited at thought of them digging further back into the archives and putting together some kind of a Fats Comet compilation.
I did not. I shall have to give it a listen.
I enjoyed all of those, even if the Harry Styles is 1. too long, b. benefitting from exceeding expectations.
I’m loving the London Grammar album, but I won’t trouble you with a vid as everyone here knows them already, so have some Thundercat, here is ‘Show You The Way’ live version – check out the bass from 3.35, it’ll make you laugh out loud it’s so good – oh, and Kenny Loggins, haha
https://youtu.be/x8AgdI4eyFc
I’ve just added most of the music on this thread (not the prog or Americana, sorry) to my Apple Music. It joins the other new records I’m currently in love with:
Lorde – Melodrama. This woman’s voice could raise the dead. And she’s really discovered the joy of the huge electronic pilled-up hook, which makes this outing a lot less one-note than Pure Heroine.
Kendrick Lamar – Damn. I really like this record. It’s a lot less “check ME out” than To Pimp A Butterfly, less self-consciously ambitious. It’s just banging, super-competent hip hop by someone who can do this in his sleep. It’s no Good Kid, Maaad City though – which for me is still his best.
Solange – A Seat At The Table. This came out last year, but I’ve only recently discovered it thanks to the Song Exploder podcast. It’s spare, lean, supple music that brims with explicit black consciousness, and has probably given me as much insight into the black American experience as any weighty article or book I’ve ever read. Intercut with the endlessly compelling music are spoken interludes from family and black luminaries like Master P, whose contributions I found fascinating.
Frank Ocean – Blond / Channel ORANGE. Bingo has written about FO better than anyone I’ve read, just read his blog on the subject on this site.
Laura Marling – Semper Femina. Continuing the return to her early form (OOAA) that began with Short Movie, this is a seriously good record. Maybe even her best. Those first two – Alas I Cannot Swim and I Speak Because I Can – have the spontaneity and raw genius (it’s honestly almost the right word where Marling is concerned) of her extreme youth at the time. There’s something miraculous about them, which the later work lacks. But, like Lyra and the alethiometer, what she once did by pure grace, she has now won back by hard work and experience. I didn’t like Once I Was An Eagle or A Creature I Don’t Know at all: they seemed fraught with effort, and she didn’t seem comfortable in her artistic voice. It’s back now, and older, and shot through with subtlety and wisdom. She’s a remarkable talent.
Love love love the Laura Marling album – if there’s a better singer /songwriter-y album released this year I’ll eat my Joni Mitchell Uncut special – and the acoustic versions are great too
The Solange Songexploder was excellent, thanks for reminding me as I meant to listen to the album after hearing that and forgot all about it
Oh for Christ’s sake, will people stop going on about her. I’ll probably weaken at some point (browsing in Fopp, most likely) and out of a sense of sheer enfeebled curiosity get the bloody Laura Marling album (like I did Alas I Cannot Swim) and if I’m as disappointed by the new one as I was by that one, I’ll curse another lost tenner and give it away to the nearest Oxfam shop. Again.
Yes to Solange, Bob. Best LP of last year, for me. Much better than sis’s.
Big no to Marling though. Weedy John Lewis advert singer-songwriter bollocks if you ask me.
“John Lewis advert” – *sharp intake of breath* That’s cold.
Be a boring ol’ world if we all thought the same innit? 🙂
Where is Bizkit band?
Seriously though, if we had to put the endless Lewisohn / MacDonald plagiarism into a separate tab in order to get Bingle to contribute regularly again, it would be worth it, wouldn’t it?
Not particularly, no @chiz
This is a tiny, backwater, public message board (albeit a largely polite, cosy, middle aged place … and nothing wrong with that!).
Post what you want, read what you want, comment what you want, skip what you want, go away if you want, try not to piss on someone else’s chips, accept that millions of people really enjoy music that you don’t . . . and all will be fine. Bingle seems like a nice chap – if he’s a bit discombobulated by old folk liking the music they liked when they were young folk, well so what? He can go elsewhere or he can moan here.
All in all, it’s just opinion. And if you don’t like someone’s opinion, someone else will be along soon.
PS. I like The Beatles; I also like Noura Mint Seymali. If asked to choose between them I would go for Jimmy Giuffre.
I guess I value contributors over content. I’ll read what Bingo has to say on any topic and it would be a massive loss to the place if he stopped posting
I love the idea of Monsieur Little being only one vowel away from dressing in a bear suit and hanging with a pink hippo with long fluttery eyelashes..
You say that like he doesn’t do it already.
He wouldn’t get that reference because he’s younger than the rest of us.
D’yer hear? I SAID HE’S YOUNGER… never mind.
He’s not that much younger than me *grumps*
(PS: I never fail to be amused that Bingo is one of the site’s thrusting young bucks at the tender age of nearly 39)
Like me, he comes here to feel young. Works a treat in my experience.
I read that first as “to feel the young”.
And what, pray, does that say about you?
Hm?
I tried some of that Noura Mint Seymali the other night but I have to say I still prefer semolina with spoonful of strawberry jam.
Semolina? Another bottle of shiraz, my good man!
I can bring the average age of the blog down if it makes you all feel better.
No, it doesn’t.
Quiet back there! Back into your booster seat!
Separate tab? How about a separate website? (Ba dum tish)
Why a’m not sheerin’ a tab with nee booga man!
It’s tertally unhygieenic like!
I should have mentioned the Pumarosa record. It’s a good un. Nice synth grooves, smoky guitars and Siouxsie-ish vocals. This is my favourite track
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eMG8H4yFtmU
I find I give myself little opportunity to hear new music these days (unless you count hearing an album released in 1970 for the first time as new). So far the only albums I’ve bought this year are by artists who were already familiar to me so a thread like this is a winner for me, though maybe not for my wallet.
This is probably my favourite 2017 tune at the moment, from the cool-as-f*ck Cherry Glazerr.
Very slightly NSFW video (if you have the delicate sensibilities of a Victorian maiden aunt anyway)
(“Told You I’d Be With The Guys” – Cherry Glazerr)
Crikey that’s good. Cheers chap.
Let’s have some more quality “new” please!
These guys Dead Horse One are new but their sound is not.
Yay! I’m more used to howls of indifference at my recommendations, so that’s nice 🙂
This isn’t from 2017, but their new single (“Silenced By The Roar”) doesn’t appear to be on YouTube, just Spotify. It’s also very good though, and not a million miles away from Savages who I know a few people here like.
(“Can We Talk About This?” – deux furieuses)
Thanks for the kind ones, folks.
I’m sure I’ll be about a bit more over the Summer, once the monomania abates.
In the mean-time, here are a few more 2017 records that have been rocking my boat…
7. 1Night – CharliXCX and Mura Masa
Mura Masa has the Midas touch, no doubt. This is a party starter.
8. Big Fish – Vince Staples
That beat is deep.
9. Sweet – Little Dragon
The single most fun record I’ve heard all year (which is saying something). I like to listen to it and pretend I’m in an 8-bit console game.
10. So Young – Portugal, The Man
Perfect for evening ruminations and conversations about the ongoing relevance of guitar bands.
11. Firefly – Mura Masa/NAO
Just say yes.
12. Classic Man (Chopped and Screwed Remix) – Jidenna
The single best thing in Moonlight. In the old school whip, in the old school whip.
If you like St Etienne or Stereolab, then this is worth a listen
(“Dry Salt In Our Hair” – Le SuperHomard)
One last one, proper old school floaty indiepop with wistful heartbroken vocals, lovely stuff.
(“Pretty Police” – See Through Dresses)
This one from Thundercat’s little brother is an absolute banger
Just dropping this in. So much fun, so many happy memories….
By happy coincidence, I saw Goldie at Waterloo Station this morning, looking a bit flustered. I think the inner city pressure may have been taking over him.
Let’s all … mellow out a little, shall we?
I’ll tell you what I’m grooving to at the moment “And The Birds Flew Overhead” by Mary Lattimore and Elysse Thebner Miller.
It’s that rare thing: an ambient album recorded live at a festival.
Last year, when Three Lobed Recordings were celebrating some jubilee or other with an outdoor festival in North Carolina, they invited Ms Lattimore (harp) and Ms Thebner Miller (keyboards, funny noises) to play a set that WOULDN’T bring the festival crowd to its feet for a good old boogie. No sir. It was quiet. Very quiet. I imagine some of the audience in Raleigh drifted off completely on a cloud of gentle, mellifluous murmurs and tones. Two pieces, each the length of an LP side. ‘Ave some of this, Afterworders…
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2017/06/15/mary-lattimore-elysse-thebner-miller-and-the-birds-flew-overhead/